Method and Apparatus for Passively Monitoring Online Video Viewing and Viewer Behavior

ABSTRACT

Various user behaviors are passively monitored and recorded when a user/viewer interacts with a network video player, e.g. a web video player, while watching an online video clip. For one embodiment, a data collection agent (DCA) is loaded to the player and/or to a web page that displays the video clip. The DCA passively collects detailed viewing and behavior information without requiring any specific input or actions on the part of the user. Indications of user preferences are inferred by user actions leading up to viewing the video, while viewing the video, and just after and still related to viewing the video. The DCA periodically sends this information to a central server where it is stored in a central database and where it is used to determine preference similarities among different users. Recorded user preference information may also be used to rate a video itself.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/975,196, filed Aug. 23, 2013, which application is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/904,552, filed Oct. 14, 2010, whichapplication is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/212,556, Method and Apparatus For Tracing Users Of Online VideoWeb Sites, filed Sep. 17, 2008, each of which is incorporated herein inits entirety by this reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical field

The invention relates to the monitoring of a website and the interactionof a client with a website and with other persons via website- oremail-based communication. More particularly, the invention relates to amethod and apparatus for passively monitoring online video viewing andviewer behavior.

Description of the Background Art

Video clips may be supplied to viewers from any website for information,entertainment, or advertising purposes. Some of these websites may beWeb 2.0 websites where a user can create an account, upload, share,contribute, comment, vote, or read personal opinions of other users, allon the same site. When video clips are viewed purely for entertainmentpurposes, users may be more motivated to rate a particular video clipaccording to their preferences. However, not all viewers expend theeffort to rate a video, even if they feel strongly about it.

Video sharing and online video services allow individuals or contentpublishers to upload video clips to Internet websites. The websitestores the video clip on its server, and provides different types offunctions to allow others to view that video clip. These websites mayallow commenting and rating of a video clip. Many services have optionsfor private sharing and other publication options. Video sharingservices can be classified into several categories including, usergenerated video sharing websites, video sharing platform, white labelproviders, and web based video editing.

As video hosting websites become increasingly popular, such websitesprovide a platform for traditional publishers, such as televisionbroadcasters, to use these websites as another medium to display mediacontent which may be of a more informative nature. For example, CBS andCNN networks often publish video clips on YouTube. For such publishersit is highly desirable to know the ratings of their published videoclips. In television the ratings, e.g. Nielsen Ratings, estimate theaudience size and composition of television programming, and thusdetermine advertising rates. This method is not applicable for theInternet. Again, given the opportunity to rate a particular video clip,not all viewers expend the effort to rate the video clip, even if theyfeel strongly about it.

Either independent of, or associated with, entertainment or informativevideo clips, advertisement video clips may also be supplied to onlineusers. Supplying websites may or may not provide users a means to ratesuch advertisement clips. In circumstances where the advertisement isembedded as part of an entertainment or informative clip, such as apre-roll advertisement, offering users a voluntary rating facility forthe advertisement portion becomes difficult from a practicalitystandpoint.

In the related art there are different techniques to determine thepopularity of a website. One technique known in the art refers to“page-hit” (or “page views”). The “page-hit” refers to an event in whicha server receives a request for a page and then serves up the page. Acommon measure of traffic at a website is the number of page hits,especially in an advertising context, for particular pages or sets ofpages. Page hit counts are a rough measure of the traffic of a website.Other techniques involve the analyzing of the traffic between a Webserver and clients. Such prior art techniques work well when the trafficof interest relates to particular pages, but are generally notinformative when traffic by topic is desired because one page may relateto multiple topics. Systems have been suggested for embedding scriptcode in web pages for tracking user activity on a web page.

Another technique for determining the rating of video clips published ononline video sites is based on viewership information provided by thesesites. Typically, the sites count the cumulative number of users whoview the clip. However, more refined measurements that include, forexample, the quantity and characteristics of viewers, as well asdetailed information about the duration and repetition of each view, areneither generated by video sharing websites nor by any other prior arttechnique. Furthermore, viewership information is easily manipulated bythe use of, for example, scripts, browser refreshes, and other meansthat skew the results. As a result, ratings measurements that are basedon the viewership information are inaccurate at best and oftenmisleading.

Systems have been suggested for placement of advertising slots in hostedvideo clips. In such systems, methods are used to track the ad placementand viewing. Such methods require preparation of the video clips for adplacement.

It would be therefore advantageous to provide a solution for onlinevideo analytics for generally available video clips on the Internet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Overall, to acquire user preference information for an advertisementvideo clip effectively, and to expand the base of user preferenceinformation for any video clip beyond those viewers who voluntarily ratea video clip, an embodiment of the invention provides a solution forpassively recording various viewer behaviors from which user preferencesmay be inferred, and the users themselves may be rated according totheir preferences. The gathered information can also be used to rate thevideo itself.

Thus, the method and apparatus described herein passively monitors andrecords various user behaviors when a user/viewer interacts with anetwork video player, e.g. a web video player, while watching an onlinevideo clip. For one embodiment, a data collection agent (DCA) is loadedto the player and/or to a web page that displays the video clip. The DCApassively collects detailed viewing and behavior information withoutrequiring any specific input or actions on the part of the user.Indications of user preferences are inferred by user actions leading upto viewing the video, while viewing the video, and just after and stillrelated to viewing the video. The DCA periodically sends thisinformation to a central server where it is stored in a central databaseand where it is used to determine preference similarities amongdifferent users. Recorded user preference information may also be usedto rate a video itself.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of a network for use in connectionwith the various embodiments of the invention disclosed herein;

FIG. 2 is a block schematic diagram of a viewership analytics server(VAS) according to the invention;

FIGS. 3A-3C are examples of charts generated by the VAS according to theinvention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart that illustrates operation of a data collectionagent (DCA) according to the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that illustrates capturing, processing, creating,and recording a preference score for a video clip according to theinvention; and

FIG. 6 is a block schematic diagram that shows communicationalternatives for sharing a video clip with other persons according tothe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention passively monitors and records varioususer behaviors when a user/viewer interacts with a network video player,e.g. a web video player, while watching an online video clip. In oneembodiment, a data collection agent (DCA) is loaded to the player and/orto a web page that displays the video clip. The DCA passively collectsdetailed viewing and behavior information without requiring any specificinput or actions on the part of the user. Indications of userpreferences are inferred by user actions leading up to viewing thevideo, while viewing the video, and just after and still related toviewing the video. The DCA periodically sends this information to acentral server where it is stored in a central database and where it isused to determine preference similarities among different users.Recorded user preference information may also be used to rate a videoitself.

In one embodiment, the invention comprises a method and/or an apparatusfor monitoring and recording when a user interacts with a video playerwhile watching a video clip online. Specifically, a data collectionagent (DCA) is loaded to the player or to a web page that displays thevideo clip. The DCA collects detailed viewing information andperiodically sends this information to a central server. The viewinginformation is processed by the central server and the central serverthen generates any of a viewership attention span report, a viewershipdemographics report, a viewership geographic report, and a viewershipsharing report. The attention span report and the sharing report provideinferred user preference information that is used to rate a video clippassively without requiring any specific input from the user/viewer. Forpurposes of the discussion herein, the terms watching, viewing, andplaying are used as interchangeably. When a video clip is playing it isassumed that the viewer is viewing or watching the clip. However, theviewer may in fact be watching something else and not the video clip ata particular moment in time. There is no way to know for sure and, thus,the assumption is made.

FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of an arrangement of elements 100that may be used in connection with the invention. These elements 100include at least a web server 110 for hosting video sharing websites.The websites include, but are not limited to, YouTube™, MetaCafe™,Google® video, Yahoo!® video, Myspace.com®, users' blogs, etc.

A viewership analytics server (VAS) 120 is configured to connect to eachweb server 110 through a network 130, for example, but not limited to, awide area network (WAN), which enables connectivity such as Internetconnectivity. The VAS 120 executes the tasks related to gathering ofviewership information for web servers 110, analyzing the gatheredinformation, and generating reports on the quantity and characteristicsof viewers, as well as providing information about the duration andrepetition of each view. These tasks are described in greater detailbelow. The VAS 120 is connected to a database 140 in which the collectedand generated viewership data is saved.

Clients 150-1 through 150-M communicate with web servers 110 through thenetwork 130. A client 150 comprises at least a web browser, such asMicrosoft® Internet Explorer, that allows the user to view and navigatethrough web pages downloaded from one or more servers 110. Each client150 is capable of downloading, playing, and displaying video clipsprovided by the servers 110. With this aim, each client 150 is capableof running a video player (not shown), which is typically integratedinto a web page. The video player may be, but is not limited to, aFlash-based web player, DivX web player, Microsoft Media Player, etc.

In accordance with the principles of the invention, a data collectoragent (DCA) is loaded to video sharing websites that are hosted onservers 110 to capture information about the interactions of the viewerswith web players. The DCA may be a script code, e.g. JavaScript, hostedby the VAS 120 and loaded to web pages hosted on servers 110. The DCAmay be also in a form of a plug-in installed in the video playersprovided by video content providers.

The DCA collects and sends metadata and detailed viewing information tothe VAS 120. The metadata comprises at least a video identification(ID), a publisher ID, a website ID that is derived from the uniformresource locator (URL), a length of the video clip being viewed, and thecurrent time. The detailed viewing information includes the actionsperformed on the player and a timestamp. The recorded actions may be,for example, playing, pausing, rewinding, forwarding, and so on. Thetimestamp start and end times are expressed, for example, in secondsfrom the beginning of the video clip. For instance, the pair <play,20-35> means that a user viewed the clip for only for 15 secondsstarting at the 20.sup.th second from the beginning. The pair <pause,30> means that the user paused 30 seconds after the beginning of theclip. The data gathered by the DCA is used by the VAS 120. In oneembodiment, these requests are sent to the VAS 120 in the form of ahypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request. An HTTP request thatincludes the metadata is sent to the VAS 120 once a web page, includingthe DCA, has completely uploaded to a client's 150 browser. The detailedviewing information, including the pairs of actions and timestamps, isperiodically sent to the VAS 120. The VAS 120 extracts the dataencapsulated in the received requests and saves the data in the database140.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention users, e.g.advertisers and content publishers, can access the VAS 120 through, forexample, a client 150. This process is similar to that used when a userviewing the content accesses the VAS 120. Advertisers and contentpublishers can designate which websites, publishers, and video clips totrace. In one embodiment of the invention, the user views generated datafrom the VAS 120 by logging onto a website.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the VAS 120 implemented in accordancewith one embodiment of the invention. The VAS 120 includes aninformation collection module 210, an analyzer 220, and a graphical userinterface (GUI) module 230. The collection module 210 communicates witha DCA on a client 150 for the purpose of receiving HTTP requests andresponding thereto. Specifically, the module 210 generates HTTPresponses containing the script code of the DCA. The informationcollection module 210 further receives the HTTP requests, including thedata collected by the DCA, extracts the information from the requests,and saves the information in the database 140. This information includesdetailed viewing information and content metadata, which is savedtogether with tracking data including, but not limited to, the Internetprotocol (IP) address, as well as the operating system and browser typeof the client 150. The detailed viewing information is saved in an entryassociated with the video ID. In an exemplary embodiment, the database140 includes a table having the following fields: video_ID, website_ID,publisher_ID, date, IP, OS, browser type, and <action, timestamp> pairs.

The analyzer 220 processes the information saved in the database 140 togenerate viewership-related analytics data, an attention span report,and viewership demographics. Viewership-related analytics data includes,but is not limited to, the number of viewers during any period of time,e.g. last three days, last week, last months, etc. for a video clip, fora publisher, or for a group of video clips over different periods oftime. This information can be generated for a single website or across aplurality of websites. To generate the analytics data mentioned herein,the analyzer 220 first computes the number of viewers in each day, orany other time interval, from the gathered information. The process forgenerating the viewership-related analytics data is further discussed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/871,880, A Method and System forMonitoring Online Video, assigned to a common assignee, the entirety ofwhich is incorporated herein by this reference thereto.

The analyzer 220 also generates an attention span report that includesdetailed information about the duration and repetition of each view.This report includes, per each video clip, the total number of viewers,and the number of viewers that viewed the complete video clip. Thisreport is produced by processing the data stored in the database 140. Inaddition, the analyzer 220 produces a viewership-geographic report. Thisreport includes the number of viewers of a video clip in each countryaround the globe. The report is generated by correlating the number ofviews with IP addresses of the different viewers. Furthermore, aviewership demographics report is generated by analyzer 220. This reportcorrelates the number of viewers with demographics including race, age,income, educational attainment, employment status, etc. The demographicsare retrieved from the users' profiles as saved in the online videowebsites, if and when available.

In accordance with another embodiment, the analyzer 220 can detect fraudattempts. Such attempts are typically performed by browser refreshes orscripting intended to inflate the view count artificially. With thisaim, the analyzer 220 maintains a history file of the video IDs thathave been viewed in the past during a predefined period of time, e.g.video clips viewed in last two hours, by each IP address. If theanalyzer 220 detects multiple views above a threshold from the same IPaddress within a predefined period time, the analyzer 220 discards thedata regarding the subsequent views or any views. The analyzer 220 alsovalidates that the database 140 does not contain timestamp entries withduration longer than the length of the video clip. This check protectsagainst scripting attacks intended to record repeated video views undera single view count.

The GUI 230 displays the viewership-related analytics data produced bythe analyzer 220 as charts or text-based reports. In one embodiment, thecharts are dynamic. That is, the GUI 230 dynamically changes thedisplayed content of the chart as the user changes the chart's timescale. FIGS. 3A-3C show examples of charts of the various reports asgenerated by the GUI 230 according to several embodiments of theinvention. FIG. 3A is a chart that shows an attention span report. FIG.3B is a chart representing the viewership by geography. FIG. 3C showscharts of viewership demographics, specifically, the age distributionand gender distribution of viewers.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart 400 that shows the steps for operating the DCA inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. When a web page thatincludes a video clip is loaded, the DCA is inserted S410 on the pageand sets a third party cookie in the browser. The third party cookie isused to track the video viewing activity of each unique user across allvideo providers. The DCA is inserted on the web page using an HTTPresponse from the server 110 and contains a script code. The DCAgenerates S420 an HTTP request that includes metadata and sends therequest to the VAS 120. This request contains the provider site in theURL path and the ID of the video being viewed, the local client'scurrent time, the client time zone offset, and the non-personallyidentifiable provider user ID. The VAS 120, upon receiving this request,extracts the metadata and saves it in database 140. Once the video clipis internally loaded in the player, the DCA generates S430 HTTP requeststhat include the detailed viewing information, for example in the formatdescribed above. Thereafter, these HTTP requests are periodically sentS440 to the VAS 120. Once the web page is closed or the browser windowlocation is changed while a video clip is being viewed, the DCAtransmits an HTTP request that includes the final data pair that ends atthe current viewing time-point.

The earlier discussion regarding FIG. 1 refers to collecting detailedinformation about the duration and repetition for viewing a particularvideo clip. The DCA functionality residing in the viewer's computer 150or supplying website 110 collects this information passively and mayinclude detailed information to enable further analysis of parametersrelated, for instance, to viewing duration and repetition. For instance,the DCA may passively record whether a viewer watched a particular videoclip at all. It may also record what specific portions of a video clipthe viewer watched and the sequence in which they watched thoseportions. Viewers are known to rewind entire videos, rewind portions ofa video, or skip around within a particular video, watching differentportions in a regular or irregular sequence. In fact, many other actionsof a viewer may be passively observed and used to rate the vieweraccording to their preferences as well as rate a video clip itself. FIG.5 is a flowchart 500 that shows the steps for passively collecting andprocessing behavior or viewership information related to a video clip.Viewer actions that reflect their preferences with respect to aparticular video clip may occur before they play the clip, given someforeknowledge of the clip content; while they watch the clip; and afterthey watch the clip. In step S510, parameters respective of a viewer'sbehavior and actions leading up to their playing a video clip arerecorded. Examples of such actions include but are not limited to:

-   (i) Enduring a pre-roll advertisement, thus showing an affinity    and/or tolerance for ads;-   (ii) Accessing the video clip by a particular method:    -   (a) Authenticating or logging-in, thus showing higher interest,        to view the video clip;    -   (b) Being incentivized to see the video, such as obtaining        points in an online game; and-   (iii) Adjusting the bit rate for streaming or downloading the video    prior to playing it, and in which direction they adjusted the bit    rate, e.g. faster or slower.

In step S520, parameters respective of a viewer's behavior and actionsduring their playing of a video clip are recorded. Examples of suchactions include but are not limited to:

-   (i) Adjusting the volume level, muting, and un-muting;-   (ii) Pausing and un-pausing;-   (iii) Fast-forwarding and rewinding;-   (iv) Replaying the video clip, how many times it was replayed, and    what portion was replayed;-   (v) Viewing duration and % completion;-   (vi) Viewing in full-screen mode;-   (vii) Adjusting the bit rate for streaming or downloading the video    while playing it, and in which direction did they adjust the bit    rate, e.g. faster or slower;-   (viii) Clicking-through on an overlay image or the video itself to    be taken to another webpage or website;-   (ix) Spending time viewing certain segments of the video clip that    are judged to have higher value based on actions of previous    viewers; and-   (x) Enduring a mid-roll advertisement, thus showing an affinity    and/or tolerance for ads.

In step S530, parameters respective of a viewer's behavior and actionsafter playing of a video clip are recorded. Examples of such actionsinclude but are not limited to:

-   (i) Sharing the video via an embed code. Generally, with online    video a user can copy a small HTML tag out and paste it into their    blog to share the video. The system according to the invention    tracks the action of copying out that HTML code. Such action may be    the operation of a button or simply the act of highlighting the text    in a textbox;-   (ii) Sharing the video via E-mail; [0055] (iii) Sharing the video    via a social network;-   (iv) Sharing the video in multiple separate events and how many    separate sharing events the viewer initiated to share the video    clip;-   (v) Waiting for a recorded time duration between viewing the video    clip and initiating a sharing event;-   (vi) Bookmarking the video clip for later viewing;-   (vii) Downloading and saving the video for later viewing; and-   (viii) Subscribing to a channel or feed for the video content    producer or artist to become better aware of new videos.

In step S540, a viewer preference score is created for the video clipbased on the particular viewer's behavior and the score is associatedwith the user as metadata. In step S550, a video clip score is createdfor the video clip based on the particular viewer's behavior and thescore is associated with the video clip as metadata. When a score iscalculated for either the user's preference or the video clip itself,the different factors above that contribute to the score are optionallyweighted in the score calculation. For instance, the fact that a videoclip is shared may have more value in calculating a preference scorethan the fact that they paused the video clip. The weighting may also bedifferent for calculating the score for a user's preference relative toa particular clip as opposed to the score for the clip itself. Forinstance, the fact that the viewer watched the pre-roll advertisementmay be more valuable for scoring the user than for scoring the video.Another example of weighting occurs where an un-mute or full-screenaction is considered to be a highly-valuable action, whereas simpleviewing duration for a video that plays automatically may not be, as itmay simply be playing in the user's browser without their attention.

In step S560, the viewer preference score and the video clip score arerecorded in a database.

Network 600 in FIG. 6 shows a flow of information within an embodimentof the invention with regard to sharing of information related to videoclips between users. Sharing typically occurs by way of a wide-areanetwork 130 normally comprising the Internet or a portion thereof. Thesharing process is initiated by the terminal belonging to a primaryviewer/user 150 who decides that a particular video clip is interestingenough or entertaining enough to share with a friend. A terminal orcommunication device 640 as shown would typically be used by a friend ora group of friends. Many types of communication devices or terminals areknown in the art to be used for communication within social networks andinclude PCs and smart phones. The process is initiated when the primaryviewer at terminal 150 is supplied a video clip 610 from a webpage 110.This video clip may be supplied automatically without any initiation bythe user, or it may be supplied to the user upon some action the usertakes to view the video clip. When the primary viewer decides they wishto share a video clip they may be offered the ability to share by way ofwebpage 110, or alternately by providing the link to the particularvideo clip to a third-party link sharing website 660. When a sharingrequest 620 is made by viewer 150 to website 110, website 110 can notifya friend at terminal 640 via email or directly if the friend at terminal640 is logged into website 110.

User 150 may also share the link to a video clip through communicationpath 650 and a third-party website 660 where link sharing is supported.Examples of link sharing websites include, but are not limited to, digg,del.icio.us, and reddit. Links to video clips can also be shared in asimilar manner via social networking sites such as Facebook® andtwitter. Sharing behaviors can be monitored by DCA functions located inthe viewer's computer 150, located on a server at the supplying website110, or both. Data gathered by these DCA functions is periodicallytransferred to VAS 120 for logging, analysis, and reporting. The linksharing website may communicate with a friend using terminal 640 viaemail or directly if terminal 640 is logged into website 660. Inaddition to the sharing mechanisms described in FIG. 6, sharing may alsobe accomplished via an embed code as previously described for step S530of FIG. 5.

Passively monitored sharing activity may include at least one or more ofthe following:

-   i. If a viewer shared a particular video clip;-   ii. How many times they shared the video clip;-   iii. How many persons they shared the clip with;-   iv. Which sharing mechanisms and/or websites they chose to use to    share the video clip; and-   v. The time duration between when they watched the clip and when    they shared it.

While immediately sharing a video clip certainly shows interest, sharingthe video clip after a period of time has passed shows that the videoclip left a lasting impression on the viewer. Also, should the userinitiate a large number of separate sharing events or sharing actionsfor a particular video clip, this may provide an indication that thevideo clip deserves a higher score for the sharing-based component ofits score.

Thus, passively observed user actions and behaviors are used to rate aparticular user's preferences relative to the video clip in question, aswell as rate the video clip itself.

It should be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that methods,processes and systems described herein can be implemented in software,hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. The implementation mayinclude the use of a computer system having a processor and a memoryunder the control of the processor, the memory storing instructionsadapted to enable the processor to carry out operations as describedhereinabove. The implementation may be realized, in a concrete manner,as a computer program product that includes a tangible computer readablemedium holding instructions adapted to enable a computer system toperform the operations as described above.

Although the invention is described herein with reference to thepreferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat other applications may be substituted for those set forth hereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the Claims includedbelow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method for generating aviewer preference score for a viewer relative to a video clip withoutrequiring a viewer to assign a score, comprising the steps of: receivingby a video analytics server (VAS) parameters respective of the viewer'sactions relative to the video clip from a data collection agent (DCA)that is loaded on a player or a web page that displays the video clip,wherein the DCA collects the parameters respective of the viewer'sactions relating to the video clip without requesting the viewer for aspecific input for rating the video clip; determining by the VAS, basedon the parameters respective of the viewer's actions, a viewerpreference score relative to the video clip; recording by the VAS theviewer preference score in a database of viewer preference scoresrespective of the viewer, wherein the viewer preference score isassociated with the viewer in the database; displaying by a GUI datarelated to the viewer preference score; maintaining by an analyzerincluded in the VAS a history file of video identifiers (IDs) thatidentify videos that have been viewed in the past during a predefinedperiod of time by each IP address; detecting by the analyzer that avideo corresponding to one of the video IDs has been viewed a number oftimes from a same IP address that is above a threshold value within thepredefined period of time; determining by the analyzer that fraudattempts are being performed by browser refreshes or scripting intendedto inflate a view count artificially when the analyzer detects that thevideo has been viewed the number of times from the same IP address thatis above the threshold value within the predefined period of time; anddiscarding by the analyzer data regarding subsequent views of the videothat has been viewed the number of times from the same IP address thatis above the threshold value within the predefined period of time. 2.The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions relative of the video clip compriseat least a parameter that indicates the viewer: accessing the video clipby a particular method comprising authenticating or logging-in.
 3. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions relative of the video clip compriseat least a parameter that indicates the viewer: adjusting a bit rate forstreaming or downloading the video prior to playing the video, whereinthe parameter that indicates the viewer adjusting the bit rate furtherindicates whether the viewer increased or decreased the bit rate.
 4. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions relative of the video clip compriseat least a parameter that indicates the viewer: enduring a pre-rolladvertisement prior to playing the video clip.
 5. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, further comprising: validating by theanalyzer that the history file does not contain timestamp entries withduration longer than the length of the video clip to protect againstscripting attacks intended to record repeated video views under a singleview count.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein theDCA collects the parameters respective of the viewer's actions relatingto the video clip by placing a third party cookie on the viewer'smachine to track viewer's actions relating to the video clip across aplurality of video providers.
 7. The computer implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the parameters respective of the viewer's actionscomprise at least a parameter that indicates the viewer: adjusting avolume level while the video clip is playing.
 8. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the parameters respective of theviewer's actions comprise at least a parameter that indicates theviewer: viewing the video clip in full-screen mode.
 9. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the parameters respective of theviewer's actions comprise at least a parameter that indicates theviewer: muting, or un-muting the video clip while the video clip isplaying.
 10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein theparameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer: pausing or un-pausing the videoclip.
 11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein theparameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer: fast-forwarding or rewinding thevideo clip.
 12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, whereinparameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer: clicking-through on an overlayimage or on the video clip itself to be taken to another webpage orwebsite while the video clip is playing.
 13. The computer implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the parameters respective of the viewer'sactions comprise at least a parameter that indicates the viewer:spending time viewing certain segments of the video clip that are judgedto have higher value based on actions of previous viewers.
 14. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions comprise at least a parameter thatindicates the viewer: enduring a mid-roll advertisement that isdisplayed while the video clip is playing.
 15. The computer implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the parameters respective of the viewer'sactions comprise at least parameters that indicate: the viewer replayingthe video clip, a number of times the video clip was replayed, and anidentification of a portion of the video clip that was replayed.
 16. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions comprise at least parameters thatindicate at least one of: sharing the video via a social network afterplaying the video clip, sharing the video via an embed code afterplaying the video clip, or sharing the video via e-mail after playingthe video clip.
 17. The computer implemented method of claim 1, whereinthe parameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer: sharing the video in a number ofseparate events after playing the video clip, wherein the parameterfurther indicates the number of separate sharing events the viewerinitiated.
 18. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein theparameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer: after playing the video clip,waiting for a time duration between viewing the video clip andinitiating a sharing event, wherein the parameter further indicates saidtime duration.
 19. The computer implemented method of claim 14, whereinthe parameters respective of the viewer's actions comprise at least aparameter that indicates the viewer, after playing the video clip,performing at least one of: bookmarking the video clip for laterviewing, downloading and saving the video for later viewing, orsubscribing to a channel or feed for the video content producer orartist.
 20. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereoninstructions, when executed by a processor, causes a processor toperform a method for generating a viewer preference score for a viewerrelative to a video clip without requiring a viewer to assign a score,comprising: receiving parameters respective of the viewer's actionsrelative to the video clip from a data collection agent (DCA) that isloaded on a player or a web page that displays the video clip, whereinthe DCA collects the parameters respective of the viewer's actionsrelating to the video clip without requesting the viewer for a specificinput for rating the video clip; determining based on the parametersrespective of the viewer's actions, a viewer preference score relativeto the video clip; recording the viewer preference score in a databaseof viewer preference scores respective of the viewer, wherein the viewerpreference score is associated with the viewer in the database;signaling to a GUI to display data related to the viewer preferencescore; maintaining a history file of video identifiers (IDs) thatidentify videos that have been viewed in the past during a predefinedperiod of time by each IP address; detecting that a video correspondingto one of the video IDs has been viewed a number of times from a same IPaddress that is above a threshold value within the predefined period oftime; determining that fraud attempts are being performed by browserrefreshes or scripting intended to inflate a view count artificiallywhen the analyzer detects that the video has been viewed the number oftimes from the same IP address that is above the threshold value withinthe predefined period of time; and discarding data regarding subsequentviews of the video that has been viewed the number of times from thesame IP address that is above the threshold value within the predefinedperiod of time.